Soitsambu ward councillor Daniel Ngoitiko (centre) yesterday in Arusha explains why Ngorongoro residents strongly object to a government plan to evict them from 1,500 square kilometres of land in order to pave way for hunting tourism. Left is Ngorongoro District Council chairman Elias Ngorisa and right is special seats councillor Tina Timan. PHOTO | PETER SARAMBA
What you need to know:
He stressed that the plan dated back to 1992 when the government offered Lolilondo and Sale ward villages to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without the consent of the residents.
Arusha. Residents of Ngorongoro District have threatened to ditch Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) if its government implements what they called its long-standing ‘conspiracy’ to evict them from their ancestral land.
Their delegation comprising Maasai elders, politicians and women told a press conference here that a series of events dating back to 16 years ago indicated the government was intending to lease their 1,500 square-kilometre land to an investor.
Their claims come just a few days after Natural Resources and Tourism minister Lazaro Nyalandu vehemently dismissed a report by the UK-based Guardian newspaper on Tanzania government’s intention to evict them and turn their land into a reserve for the royal family of Dubai to hunt.
An attempt by a 10-man delegation of Loliondo District residents led by the district council chairman Elias Ngolisa to meet Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda in his Dodoma office on their quandaries proved futile on Wednesday despite getting an appointment beforehand.
Addressing journalists on their way back from Dodoma, the CCM chairman for the district, Mr Ibrahim Sakay, asked the ruling party’s secretary general to consider intervening in the government’s plan to grab the pastoralists land in a bid to meet interests of investors.
He said Mr Nyalandu had visited Ngorongoro thrice lately in his attempt to convince nine councillors on the CCM ticket, including the district chairman and four CCM village chairpersons to buy the government’s plan.
The minister’s frequent visits had nothing to do with village land use plans as he claimed, for the assignment did not fall in his docket, the CCM district cadre insisted.
He stressed that the plan dated back to 1992 when the government offered Lolilondo and Sale ward villages to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) without the consent of the residents.
In 2008, a fresh row erupted when Ortelo Business Corporation (OBC) -- a luxury safari company set up by an official close to the UAE royal family -- conspired with local leaders to take over their land.
The following year the government enforced the contracts which lacked legitimacy by carrying out a military operation which saw the residents’ property destroyed and a mysterious loss of a boy -- Ngodidio Rotiken.
The government drafted Sh157 million worth of a land use plan financed by OBC in 2010 without engaging residents of the district. The commissioner of land ordered Ololosokwan and Engaresero villages to return their village land certificates on grounds that they were mired in conflict.
Last year, the Natural Resources and Tourism ministry announced that he had earmarked 1,500 square kilometres of the Loliondo Wildlife Management Area for tourism, triggering protests from in and outside the country against the decision.
